The circulatory system of the human body transports blood containing chemicals, such as metabolites, hormones, and cellular waste products, to and from the cells. This organ system includes the heart, blood, and a vascular network. Veins are vessels that carry blood toward the heart while arteries carry blood away from the heart. The human heart consists of two atrial chambers and two ventricular chambers. Atrial chambers receive blood from the veins and the ventricular chambers, which include larger muscular walls, pump blood from the heart. Movement of the blood is as follows: blood enters the right atrium from either the superior or inferior vena cava and moves into the right ventricle. From the right ventricle, blood is pumped to the lungs via pulmonary arteries to become oxygenated. Once the blood has been oxygenated, the blood returns to the heart by entering the left atrium, via the pulmonary veins, and flows into the left ventricle. Finally, the blood is pumped from the left ventricle into the aorta and the vascular network.
In some instances, it becomes necessary to maintain a fluidic communication with the vascular network. For example, a circulatory assist system may be used to aid in pumping the blood through the vascular network, thereby relieving the symptoms associated with congestive heart failure (commonly referred to as heart disease). The pump of the circulatory assist system includes inflow and outflow cannulae. Often the inflow cannula connects the left atrium of the heart to the pump; the outflow cannula connects the pump to the arterial system.
Early installation of the circulatory assist device could unload the heart and prevent the further development of congestive heart failure in patients with declining left ventricular function. However, those patients who would gain the most benefit from the circulatory assist device are often too frail for the invasiveness of the surgery. Accordingly, there continues to be a need for devices and procedures that decrease the invasiveness of the surgical procedure. For example, it would be beneficial to have devices that may be delivered and secured to a vascular structure in a minimally invasive manner but that are also capable of being attached to an auxiliary device.